November AND December Choices!

As I wrote last week, "Every year I put together a calendar for friends and family, of photos I have published on this blog for the last year or so. However, it's always difficult to make decisions about which photos to use. I am hoping visitors to this blog will help out. Every day for the next few weeks I will publish three or four photos from a given month and hope that comments and choices made by visitors will help me make a final decision which photos to use in this year's calendar. As an incentive, I will offer an online downloadable/printable file of the calendar to anyone who helps me make a choice."

Thanks to everyone who has given me their opinions so far, and it really helps when you give reasons for your preference.

Below are my favorite November AND December photos, some from 2016 and some from 2015. The printing deadline is closer than I thought so I am speeding up the pace. There are four to choose from today. Which TWO of these do you prefer?

Bear Hill

Songhees Point

Snow

The Inner Harbour Causeway and Legislative Assembly

Lichen 2

Every time I reach the summit of Bear Hill I enjoy the wonderfully gnarled limbs of this large Garry Oak. It's like an enormous Bonsai. This oak and those pictured yesterday seem to think it's spring - they've got young green leaves sprouting from the ends of their branches. Perhaps this is a result of climate change.

Lichens

As well as being a good season for mosses this time of year is great for lichens too. Some of the trees in Bear Hill Park were so festooned with lichen they reminded me of the Florida Everglades.

Moss 2

This is a different kind of moss from that posted yesterday but it is also very common though more likely to be found on fallen trees as it is pictured here.

Moss 1

This is a great time of the year for mushrooms but it also seems to be the best time of the year for mosses and lichens. The moss pictured here seems to be particularly fond of Garry Oak tree bark as a good place to grow. I took this photo when Fern and I took a weekend walk up Bear Hill Regional Park in Saanich.

Bear Hill

In The Woods

We went out to Saanich for a hike up Bear Hill and it was lovely, as usual. So much so that the only way to cope with the incredible exuberance of spring was to switch to black and white. In this way you can zero in on the little details of what make this time of year magical. - Fern

Death Camas (Toxicoscordion venenosum)

This plant is called Death Camas (Toxicoscordion venenosum), not because it is a related to the Camas Lilies posted yesterday but because its bulbs are very similar to Camas bulbs, with one important difference - the bulbs of Death Camas are very poisonous. While the flowers of this plant and Camas Lilies are quite different, traditionally the bulbs were not harvested until long after the flowering season when even the leaves had withered. Death Camas often grow in close proximity to Camas Lilies and the bulbs of both could be harvested together, with dire consequences. During the flowering season, when the two plants could be easily distinguished, First Nations people would industriously uproot the Death Camas from their favored Camas Lily meadows. However, without that kind of care, harvesting Camas Bulbs in late summer is probably a foolish activity. Better nowadays simply to enjoy the splendid flowers. The Death Camas pictured above was photographed in Bear Hill Park on the Saanich Peninsula.

Elusive Orchid

I am pleased to introduce the Fairy Slipper (Calypso bulbosa) to these pages. I have been looking for this elusive indigenous wild orchid for several years now and was finally able to enjoy some on my recent excursion to Bear Hill Park in Saanich. They are very small and inconspicuous and tend to grow in shady hidden areas on the forest floor, never very profusely. Although I saw about a dozen altogether, I never saw more than three in a group. They are only found in conjunction with a specific kind of fungus and the tiny seeds will not germinate if the fungus is not present. Nor will the plant survive if transplanted to an area without that specific fungus, so if you should be lucky enough to see one, leave it undisturbed

Bear Hill Park

Bear Hill Park is on the Saanich Peninsula about a half hour's drive from Victoria and is covered with spring flowers right now, especially Shooting Stars, Sea Blush, Camas and Fawn Lilies. But what I really went there for a few days ago was to see if I could find one of our local wild orchids, commonly called Ladyslipper (Calypso bulbosa). I was lucky enough to find a few and will share a photo tomorrow. For today let's just enjoy the view from near the summit of Bear Hill. Below, take a minute and watch the clouds sail by.

Mystery Flower

I went up Bear Hill a few weeks ago specifically to check out the spring flowers and photographed this lovely little flower. I saw about a half dozen of these plants here and there along the trail to the summit. As I usually do, I photographed this flower intending to identify it from my field guides later. Well, I've not been able to find it in my field guide so I'm hoping someone out there can tell me what it is.

Turkey Vulture (Cathartes aura)

I went to Bear Hill Regional Park recently to check on the spring flowers (Ladyslippers especially) there. When I reached the summit of the hill I was rewarded by the sight of a half dozen Turkey Vultures (Cathartes aura) cruising on the thermals. Seeing these birds always reminds me of those dusty spaghetti westerns that were the only place I saw vultures during my youth. I suspect this was because one rarely sees them on the ground here and unless you're a bit of bird watcher they are not easily identifiable in the air.

Orange

Pink

I'm addicted to color. It's one of the reasons I am fond of photography but it also explains why I love spring and summer so much. Then the landscape, winter-cloaked in brown and gray suddenly begins to shimmer with blues and pinks and purples against a field of vibrant green. I came across the pretty pink above while on a walk in Bear Hill Regional Park.

Bear Hill View

The Bear Hill Regional Park I visited a few weeks ago offers some lovely views of the rural countryside of the Saanich Peninsula. If you haven't noticed before, I'm very fond of views framed by trees and flowers in the foreground....

Spotted Coralroot (Corallorhiza maculata)

Orchids, for me, are always associated with the steamy heat and humidity of the tropics. Thus I am surprised to find that we have over 40 different kinds of orchids growing wild here in British Columbia. Perhaps one reason we often don't notice them is that they are relatively small compared to the orchids we see in florists and supermarkets. However, I am beginning to discover that though small, our local orchids are no less beautiful and interesting. Here is one I came across in the Bear Hill Regional Park in Saanich, just outside Victoria. It is the Spotted Coralroot (Corallorhiza maculata). This strange and beautiful little plant has no leaves or chlorophyll and gets its food from the mycelium of a kind of mushroom through its coral-like root structure.